Method of making crochet-hooks.



-B. E. SAWYER.

METHOD OF MAKING CROCHET HO0KS.,

APPLICATION FILED MAY 25. 1911.

1,254,161. Patented Jan. 22, 1918.

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* ii'nrrn BURNSIDE E. SAWYER, 0F FITCHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF MAKING CROCHET-HOOKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 22, 1918.

Application filed May 25, 1917. Serial No. 171,010.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BURNSIDE E. 'SA'WYER, a citizen of the United States, residing at 'Fitchburg, in the county of l/Vorcester and .tions heretofore thought necessary for accomplishing that result; and more especially to provide a simple and inexpensive method of converting a round wire blank of celluloid into a handle of the desired shape and in the same operation firmly uniting the metal hook to it. The inventlon also involves further details of the method of manufacture. Further objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figures 1 and 2 are two views of a metal blank for two crochet hooks;

' Fig. 3 is a side view of the blank for making the handle partially prepared and showing the dies by which it is to be shaped;

Figs. 4: and 5 are respectively side and edge views, partially in section, of the completed hook showing how the metal is embedded in and united with the celluloid, and

Fig. 6 is an end view of the hook.

I am well aware of the fact that crochet hooks and other articles have been made with celluloid handles and metal hooks or shanks, but in order to secure the two parts firmly together the hooks have been made larger at their butt ends than elsewhere and very long within the handle, and comparatively expensive die shaping processes have been employed, "Without securing a really firm, permanent, and uniform union of the This invention is made largely to avoid these defects in the prior procedures and to cheapen the product while actually improving it.

The hook is made from two elements, a cylindrical celluloid blank A and a metallic member B. The celluloid blank comes in the form of a rod or wire and for its preliminary preparation it is simply cut off to length and one end rounded slightly, and the other tapered and bored in at a centrally. After the blank A is cut off and either before or after it is bored at its end it is polished and its ends made convex and smooth by a polishing operation in a tumbling barrel preferably in accordance with my Patent No. 947,855 granted February 1, 1910.

The hook member B is originally formed double so as to have a hook proper Z) at each end. It is placed in a press and impressed on opposite sides at the center with a series of transverse depressions 6, preferably alternating with each other on the opposite sides. This flattens out the hook member at the center, widens it, and gives it its serrated appearance on opposite sides. It is then cut in two in the middle to form two metal hooks. The shank of one of these is placed in the opening a. at the end of the cylindrical blank A prepared as described above, and the device is placed between two flat plates C- and D. The flattened sides of the hook are placed transverse to the planes of these parts. The plate D is provided with lettering, preferably at (Z, to impress a trade mark and number on one side of the handle A and the other is perfectly plain. These plates are brought together to impress the cylindrical blank at the same time compressing it about the shank B.

The result of this simple straight pressing operation is to flatten out the blank to the form shown leaving its edges curved naturally and also to compress the plastic celluloid about the serrated shank of the hook, fill the notches thereof by the transverse flow of the celluloid, reduce the size of the hole a, and bring the celluloid into close contact with the shank. The handle is then reduced conically at its extreme hook end by a die so that it will form the celluloid symmetrically, and fit about the shank of the hook at its end.

An important feature of this simple procwhat I do claim is ess is that the blank originally being cylindrical in shape, the edges are left curved as shown in Fig. 6 without the necessity of providing any shaping surfaces for those edges. In other words these edges are left free and no attention is paid to them but they come out not only curved and properly shaped but uniform. In this way a shaping effect is introduced without any corresponding operation or shaping mechanism, and at the same time the hook is firmly secured in the end of the handle. In practice I have found that the metallic hook is never left in a loose condition, but is always intimately ordinary form can be used andthat its manipulation to produce a convenient and satisfactory shape of the handle is brought about bythe most simple operation possible, namely, that reduced by pressure between two substantially plane surfaces without any real molding operation.

The fiat compression of the blank is found not to interfere with the polishing and shaping secured at the butt end of the handle, but, leaves it in a most satisfactory conditlon. The polish is not lost at all in the compressing 1 action. The other end, of course, is so shaped in the dies that, the rounding is practically eliminated but the polish is still retained in spite of this ma terial change in shape.

Although I have illustrated and described only a single form ofthe invention and a single application of the method,I am aware of the fact that modifications can be made in both without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in the claims. Therefore I do not wish to be limited to all the details herein shown and described, but

1. The method of making a pair of crochet hooks which consists in shaping a metallic wire to provide a hook at each end, and a single series of transverse uniformirregularities on each side at the center, cutting it in two in the center ofsaid series of irregularities, and applying a handle to the irregular end of each blank.

2. The method of making a crochet hook which consists in shaping a metallic wire to provide a hook at one end, flattening it at the other and producing a series of transverse irregularities on the flattened surfaces, placing it in a blank of plastic material, and compressing said blank by pressure in a direction parallel to said flattened surfaces to flatten the blank and force it around the irregularities in the end of the wire to fix the same therein.

3. The method of making a crochet hook which consists in forming a hook on one end of a metal Wire and subjecting the other to pressure and a shaping operation to flatten it out and produce transverse depressions on opposite sides thereof on the flattened surfaces, placing the'pressed end of saidhook in an axial hole in the end of a cylindrical celluloid blank, placing said blank between two plates leaving the sides of the blank free between said plates, and applying pres sure thereto to flatten out the handle and press the celluloid about the end of the hook.

4. The method of making a crochet hook which consists in forming a hook on one end of a metal wire and subjecting the other end to pressure and a simultaneous shaping operation to flatten it out and produce transverse depressions on opposite sides thereof on theflattened surfaces, said depressions alternating with each other on the two sides, placing the depressed end of said hook in an axial hole in the end of acylindrical'celluloid blank, placing said blank between two substantially fiat plates in such position that '90 the planes of the flattened ends of the hook are transverse to the planes of the two plates, and applying a simple fiat pressure thereto to flatten out the handle, pressthe celluloid about the end of the hook, and a cause it-to fiowinwardly into said depressions. a V

5. The method of making-a crochet hook which consists in providing a cylindrical celluloid blank, rounding'it at the ends, boring a central hole in one end, placing in said hole the end of a metal hook, said end having depressions on its surface, and compressing said blank between substantially fiat surfaces to reduce it to a flat shape having 105 convex edges, reduce the celluloid, andcause the celluloid to flow about the shank of the hook into the depressions to fix the hook therein.

6. The method of making a crochet hook ITO which consists in" providing a cylindrical plastic blank, polishing it to round'its edges and ends, boring a central hole in one end, placing in said hole the end of a metal hook, compressing said blank between substan- 115 ti ally flat surfaces to reduce it to a flat shape having convex edges, and'compress it about the end of the hook and fix the hooktherein, and finally shaping the hook end of the handle to a conical form and reducing the hole into contact with the hook all around.

7. The method of making a crochet hook which consists in providing a cylindrical plastic blank, boring a central hole in one end, placing in said hole the end of a metal' hook, compressing said blank to reduce it to a flat shape having convex edges, compress it about the end of the hookand fix the hook therein, and finally shaping the, hookend of v the handle to the conical form and reducing 130 the hole into contact with the hook all flat shape having convex edges, reduce the around. celluloid, and cause the celluloid to flow 10 8. The method of making a crochet hook about the shank of the hook to fix the hook which consists in providing a cylindrical therein.

celluloid blank, boring a central hole in one In testimony whereof I have hereunto afend, placing in said hole the end of a metal fixed my signature.

hook, and compressing said blank between substantially fiat surfaces to reduce it to a BURNSIDE E. SAWYER.

Copies of'this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

